Brazil’s Lula: G20 should not be divided by ‘geopolitical issues’

Brazil’s President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, left, with India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the Mahatma Gandhi memorial at Raj Ghat on the sidelines of the G20 summit in New Delhi on Sept. 10, 2023. (PIB/AFP)

• ‘We cannot let geopolitical issues sequester the G20 agenda of discussions’
• ‘We have no interest in a divided G20. We need peace and cooperation instead of conflict’

NEW DELHI: “Geopolitical issues” should not derail G20 discussions, Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva said Sunday as his country assumed the bloc’s presidency, in an implicit reference to diplomatic wrangling over the Ukraine war.
“We cannot let geopolitical issues sequester the G20 agenda of discussions,” Lula said at the close of the bloc’s annual summit in New Delhi.
“We have no interest in a divided G20. We need peace and cooperation instead of conflict.”
G20 leaders have been deeply riven over the Ukraine war since Moscow’s invasion last year, with Russian President Vladimir Putin skipping the summit entirely to dodge political opprobrium.
Facing the prospect of a major diplomatic embarrassment, host India pressed members to agree a common statement that watered down its earlier condemnation of the war.
In the end, the G20 denounced the use of force for territorial gain but refrained from direct criticism of Russia by name.
Amitabh Kant, a key organizer for the India summit, said Saturday that Brazil was among the countries that helped thrash out a compromise on Ukraine for the statement.